Blacktail Deer Hunting Surprise AZ

Local resource for backtail deer hunting equipment in Surprise. Includes detailed information on local businesses that provide access to deer hunting scents, hunting gear, hunting guns, hunting knives, and hunting clothes, as well as advice and content on hunting.

Blacktail Hunting, The Ultimate Challenge

Blacktail hunting, what the heck is that? Sure, you know about whitetail and perhaps even mule deer hunting, but what do you know about the blacktail? Perhaps more importantly why should you care? Well, if you want to hunt the most challenging member of the deer family you'll need to know! Believe me if you ever come out West to hunt this phantom deer slivering through the pacific woodlands, you are in for the ultimate challenge.

Known officially as Odocoileus hemionus columbianus, the Columbian blacktail's range extends along the pacific coast, from British Columbia to California's Monterey County. The blacktails territory extends inland to the western slope of the Cascade Range and in central California they can be found as far east as the Sierra Nevada foothills. In the regions where blacktails and mule deer coexist they interbreed freely, resulting in a deer that cannot be classified as a true blacktail or mule deer. In California we consider these deer hybrids.

Because of the overlap in territory that exists between the blacktail and mule deer, record-keeping organizations like Boone & Crockett and Pope & Young Clubs have established regions from which all blacktail trophy entries must originate from in each state. The states in which these boundaries exist are Washington, Oregon, and California. While some hunters do not agree with these boundary lines, the boundaries are to ensure only pure strain blacktails are submitted. California leads the record books with more than 280 entries with Oregon follows closely behind with 211.

In size, blacktails (considered by most to be a subspecies of mule deer) are a smaller version of the mule deer. Average weight for a blacktail buck will fall between 100 to 140 pounds, although much larger specimens have been documented. Their antlers are bifurcated like the mule deer, but only occasionally will there be eye guards. As the name suggest, the blacktails tail is entirely black compared to that of a muley, with just the tip being black. The white rump patch that is also so apparent on the muley is almost nonexistent on the blacktail. Just a slight sliver of light colored hair is visible along the edges of the tail when the deer is relaxed. Blacktails coats are reddish in summer and warm brown to warm gray in winter and on average the blacktail ears are slightly smaller than that of the mule deer.

In the 2001 August edition of North American Hunter magazine, author and renowned whitetail hunter Jim Shockey stated "it took this whitetail hunter 10 seasons, hunting in prime blacktail country in the mountains of the West Coast, to see the light and admit the awful truth. I was unworthy! Unless I got professional help or found a blacktail buck that God messed up on? I'd never hang my tag on a big Columbian Blacktail". Even with the help of well-known blacktail guides he admitted it still took him three more attempts before his search was over. Shockey ends the story by saying "I finally held in my h...